WELSH Conservative Assembly leader Andrew RT Davies has called on the UK Government to deliver its promise to hold a free vote on scrapping the hunting ban.

His demand for Westminster colleagues to fulfil the Conservative manifesto and coalition agreement pledge follows reports that anti-hunting Tories are confident the prospect of a vote in this Parliament is now “dead and buried”.

Many of the so-called “blue foxes” are first-term Conservative MPs who do not believe hunting with dogs has a place in modern Britain.

The group has received the backing of Queen guitarist and animal rights campaigner Brian May, but has been dismissed by the Countryside Alliance as “a tiny group within the Conservative Party”.

Yesterday, farmer and South Wales Central AM Mr Davies said voters would expect the party to keep its promise to stage a free vote on repealing the 2004 ban.

He said: “I do believe that if politicians make a commitment they should do all in their power to see the commitment through...

“If politicians say something and put it in writing they should endeavour to deliver on that.”

Mr Davies said local hunts provided a valuable service in rural Wales by removing the carcasses of lambs and calves and any further reduction in hunting would hurt businesses in remote areas.

Former Countryside Alliance chief executive Simon Hart, Conservative MP for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, said the UK Government had signalled it was still committed to holding a free vote. However, he acknowledged that the timing for such a vote was difficult and MPs did not want the issue to “reopen old wounds”.

Mr Hart said there was “nothing new” about Conservative MPs being opposed to hunting and said a vote was likely to be “reasonably tight”.

He said: “If the Conservatives won an overall majority at the election it would be fine. They didn’t, therefore it [would be] close.”

The RSPCA warned that a repeal of the ban would be “barbaric and a backward step for a civilised society”.

The group insists that the law is “workable,” stating that between 2004 and 2009 more than 100 people were found guilty of offences under the Hunting Act.

John Rolls, RSPCA director of policy, said: “Our message has never changed and it never will – hunting is cruel.

“The setting of one animal against another with one of them being chased for miles and then torn to shreds is cruel.

“It disturbs me that this could ever have been seen as a sport.”

The group Conservatives Against Fox Hunting, whose most prominent member is leading “blue fox” and Gosport MP Caroline Dineage, claims to represent the views of two-thirds of Conservative supporters and the 75% of the general population.

Montgomeryshire farmer and Conservative MP Glyn Davies wants to see the repeal of the anti-hunting legislation.

He said: “I think it is a very poor ban and it makes a mockery of the legal system...

“I think there is a case for repealing the ban and I support that.”

But he added: “There is also a case for not repealing…

“There’s a danger if it was repealed all the activists would be back out and it would become a contentious issue in society again.”

However, he wants the Conservative Liberal Democrat Government to honour its pledge to give MPs a free vote.

The two parties’ programme for government states: “We will bring forward a motion on a free vote enabling the House of Commons to express its view on the repeal of the Hunting Act.”

He said: “I think a Government, wherever possible, should deliver on its promises.”

Mr Davies, who does not hunt, had not allowed hunts to use his land before the passing of the legislation, but granted permission in protest at the ban.